Hello

During March and April 2016, we broadcasted live a total of five games of highest swiss floorball league with vMix. We wanted to test what would be possible with this software and how could the workflows for producing look like. We did the tests with the trial version of vMix 16.

Our setup

Cameras

We started with one camera, moved to four cameras, but went back to three cameras for the last production (one in the middle and one static camera behind each goal). Camera feeds were sent via network as RTSP h264 stream to a powerfull i7-6700HQ / GTX 970M notebook. Latency is about 200ms. We used RTSP, because in our sports arena the LAN coverage is really good. We have LAN connections all over the sports arena. So no need for SDI and additional cabeling.

Cameras used: Canon XA35 via HDMI out, 2 GoPro Hero 3 via HDMI out.

Titles

For titles, we used the integrated title modul of vMix. We did the first production with specific title shortcuts controlled by a second operator and the web interface. But for easier title handling, we programmed our own floorball specific title controller (through API) with scoreboard, lower thirds, sponsor logos, ...

Screenshot of own title controller:


Audio

Commentary was ingested as a vMix audio input via USB interface and routed to bus A. All other audio from vMix was routed to bus B. Both busses sent their audio to VoiceMeter Banana, which did the final mix and then sent it back to vMix. That way, we had a flexibel routing possibility for the switching operator (listening to commentary only, monitoring the final mix, talk to the headset of the commentators, ...).

For intercom we used Teamspeak, also integrated into VoiceMeeter Banana. So Banana was also responsible for intercom connections.

Replay

We also used the replay module for all three cameras. Replays were used during the game for situations like goals and fouls. For the breaks between the periods, we copied the best events to a playlist and played this list out as a highlight reel right after the beginning of the break. Was that cool! The final mix was also viewable on a beamer in the sports arena!

Controllers

To control vMix, we set up a lot of shortcuts associated with MIDI commands. All audio commands were controlled by a Korg nanoKontrol. For all the rest we set up TouchOSC and programmed our own interface for fireing the shortcuts. Was also cool!

Screenshot of TouchOSC interface:


Streaming/Recording

We did not use the streaming feature of vMix. We used an external box called Teradek Vidiu. But we enabled local recording in vMix (h264 NVENC profile) in case of problems with the internet uplink.


Problems

Almost none... :-)

There were some ideas for improving the replay modul. But most ideas are already placed in different feature requests.

http://forums.vmix.com/d....aspx?g=posts&t=5520

Sometimes we had issues starting the recording of the replay module. Worst case was to remove it as an input and re-add it, because recording was not working anymore. But this specific issue was not reproducable.

CPU usage for the RTSP streams depends from resolution and bitrate. For a good qualitiy stream, we lost about 8-12% CPU load for each camera on an i7-6700HQ processor. See this post: http://forums.vmix.com/d....aspx?g=posts&t=6172

During last weeks there were a lot of discussions about using IP cameras here in the forum. So I will place a feature request for RTSP GPU decoding. Could be usefull also for other users.


Videos

Time laps video taken during installing production setup and beeing on job:


Not all games are public available because of restrictions of the right holder. Some examples:
Highlight reel of game 5:
Full game 5 (3 cams): http://www.swiss-sport.t...rch-st-gallen?medium=494
Full game 3 (4 cams): http://www.swiss-sport.t...rch-st-gallen?medium=467
Full game 2 (1 cam): http://www.swiss-sport.t...rch-st-gallen?medium=467


Regards,
Patrick

@Ice

Yes, I had to drop the fourth camera because of the annoying freezes. I guess that the CPU was overloaded. But hadn't enough time to verify exactly.

With four RTSP streams (each 8-12% load = ~40%) and replay enabled (+30% load) I had a base CPU load of 70%. With some overhead (fullscreen, playing replay events, ...) I was often between 80 to 83% CPU load. And I think that's to high for a stable system. That's why I hope GPU decoding for RTSP streams is possible. Render time was always ok between 5 to 15ms.

Other cause could be a to slow SSD disk for the replay recording.


I fully agree with the GoPro, I also don't like the wide angle. At the moment we do some tests with other cameras. Hopefully we will find something better. Which camera model would you recommend for behind the net?

One benefit has the wide angle from behind the net: if you only have a three camera setup, during behind the net replay, the viewer can follow the whole offense play. If you have more cameras for replay, then the angle from behind the net camera could be smaller.

pm

Great job Patrick